The Ailing King

Aristotle Socrates Onassis, 69, is indisputably king of what passes today for the Jet Set. Despite a few minor financial reverses, the swarthy Greek tycoon still has a fortune estimated at up to $500 million, based on a worldwide shipping and commercial empire. That permits him the luxury of enjoying lavish residences in several countries, his own private island of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea, and probably the world's most formidable private yacht, the 325-ft. Christina. Above and beyond that, he is the husband of the world's most publicized beauty--Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 45, widow of the assassinated 35th President of the U.S.

Cloaked in Mystery. Last week Onassis was once more the focus of international speculation. Amid reports that he was gravely ill--perhaps even near death--he was flown from Athens to Paris aboard an Olympic Airways Learjet specially outfitted with medical equipment. After resting for a night at his Avenue Foch apartment near the Arc de Triomphe, Onassis checked into the American Hospital in suburban Neuilly, managing to slip unobserved through the hospital's rear door. The crowd of reporters and photographers waiting at the hospital's main entrance apparently were deliberately distracted by the arrival of an ashen-faced and obviously distraught Jackie, who was accompanied by Christina Onassis (the shipper's 24-year-old daughter by a previous marriage).

Like so much else surrounding the storied career of Greece's best-known businessman, Onassis' illness was cloaked in mystery. After he spent a day in the Paris hospital, all his physician would say was that the patient "has been shaken by very heavy influenza."

A rare picture of Onassis taken last week (see cut) suggests that he has been in poor health for some time. For several months, in fact, he has been suffering from myasthenia gravis (a debilitating disease that weakens the body muscles). On occasion, he has appeared in public with his eyelids held open by adhesive tape because his muscles were unable to keep them up. Some medical experts suspect that the muscular disease may have made Onassis more vulnerable to the effects of the flu. Although he had lost energy because of impaired nutrition, his cardiac condition has been reported as stable.

At week's end Onassis' condition still remained serious. All his life he has had a reputation for being a stubborn, determined fighter who would presumably struggle to stay alive. However, intimates have noted that since a plane crash two years ago killed Alexander, his only son and heir, at the age of 24, Onassis has been despondent, wondering what he had left to work or live for.

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